


A Short Conversation

by ShadowoftheLamp



Category: Jack Blank Adventures - Matt Myklusch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-28
Updated: 2015-10-28
Packaged: 2018-04-28 15:58:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5096582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowoftheLamp/pseuds/ShadowoftheLamp
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Khalix has a few words for Jack. Jack has a few words back. Post-End of Infinity, with spoilers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Short Conversation

**Author's Note:**

> Khalix can speak to Jack because Jack isn't really trying to block him. He can, when Khalix is being annoying, but until now Khalix has been pretty quiet, so it was just a waste of energy. Khalix's speaking in Jack's head, though.

It was... weird. Actually, there were several words Khalix could use. Strange. Uncomfortable. Restricting. Terrifying, sometimes, if Jack jumped into something he couldn't quite handle. 

But... he was alive. Seeing through Jack's eyes, hearing through his ears. Once even speaking through his mouth, when he was poisoned by an enemy and needed to convey what he'd ingested, but Jack's consciousness had already blacked out.

After all, he still needed Jack to be all right, for him to survive. 

After a few months, he spoke up. Jack was scribbling down some equations for a heat ray, when-

"Thank you." Jack dropped his pencil, and it hit the floor with a loud clatter, bouncing off a sheet of metal before settling into the tile. 

"Wha- Khalix?"

"No, it's the other Rustov in your head," Khalix snapped, before he paused, and his tone evened out. "I... after my father was dead, you could have gone back on your promise to spare me. That was both very stupid and very noble of you."

"Thanks." Jack leaned down to pick up the pencil. "Out of curiosity, why are you talking to me?"

"I'm not entirely sure. Boredom, most likely." If he'd been in control of a body of his own, the alien prince would have shrugged. "I appreciate you not killing me, but I admit I never thought of being in the passenger seat permanently."

"You're not going to be able to control me." Jack's voice was stern, and Khalix almost laughed. 

"Jack, almost none of you is metal, and besides, you could kill me in an instant if you wished. How could I?" He paused. "Think of it this way. Imagine you've been waiting in a room your whole life. There are windows and a door, but they're locked. No amount of force will get you out. There's a promise of a key someday written on the door, and you'll be free. One day, someone throws open the door, sets you free... and then a few hours later, someone else pushes you back into the room, and says the key's been thrown away. You'd be upset, wouldn't you?"

"It's my body, not a-" Jack started to protest, but Khalix interrupted him. 

"Wouldn't you?" 

"Yeah, I guess I would."

"I thought so." Khalix almost sounded defeated. There was silence. It wasn't like when Jack was contentedly quiet, screwing in a sheet of metal or scribbling down an idea. Now that Khalix had made his presence known, it was the awkward silence of two people who both deeply knew and didn't know each other. 

"...How much do you remember?" Jack asked suddenly. 

"What do you mean?"

"Do you remember the orphanage, or-"

"Only from your memories. Everything before you woke me up was just a hazy blur. I wasn't active yet, then."

"Active?"

"Rustov are created from metal and a common code, then activated. After that, they survive as long as there's hosts around. My father was several hundred years old, but I wasn't created more than a few months before you were."

"If you were created, then how were you and the Magnus related?" Khalix was surprised to hear Jack's curious tone- it was almost like an excited child, on the verge of discovering something new. 

"He used large chunks of his personal source code to create me. I'm only his second son, and the first one was soon after he himself was created. Apparently the first one tried to usurp him and had to be killed."

"Sheesh."

"Probably why they gave me a mission, so I wouldn't do that." Khalix paused. "I only knew him for that year we were in captivity. I was programmed with memories of him, but that was all."

Jack waited for him to continue, and it took over a minute for Khalix to do so. It was odd, how he seemed more withdrawn now. Not cocky at all, anymore. 

"It's strange. Your memories mix with mine, and now... it's difficult to remember the affection I had for him. I care for him, and he loved me, that he saved my life, but..."

"Families are weird. I think that's a universal constant." Jack laughed a little. "He was evil, yeah, but he definitely cared for you. His motives were just pretty messed up. I'm not trying to take that from you."

"Jack?"

"Yeah?"

"...Thanks."


End file.
